WASHINGTON—A California man plead guilty Thursday in connection with his operation of the myRedBook.com website to facilitate prostitution, officials said.
This represents the first federal conviction of a website operator for facilitation of prostitution, authorities said.
Eric Omuro, also known as “Red,” 53, of Mountain View, California, plead guilty to using a facility of interstate commerce with the intent to facilitate prostitution.
Omuro was arrested on June 25, 2014.
His co-defendant, Annemarie Lanoce, 40, of Rocklin, California, pleaded guilty on Nov. 20, 2014, for assisting Omuro with the operation of the myRedBook.com website. Omuro’s sentencing hearing is set for March 26, 2015, and Lanoce’s sentencing hearing is set for March 19, 2015, officials said.
As part of the plea agreement, Omuro agreed to the forfeiture of the domain names sfredbook.com and myredbook.com and more than $1.28 million in cash and property as proceeds and other property involved in his unlawful activity.
As part of the plea agreement, Omuro admitted that from April 2010 until June 25, 2014, he owned, managed, and operated awebsite known as myRedBook.com, which was previously known as sfredbook.com.
Omuro admitted that the website hosted advertisements posted by prostitutes containing explicit photos, graphic descriptions of sexual services offered, and rates for the sexual services. The advertisements were searchable by geographic location, including cities throughout California, other U.S. states, and Canada, authorities said.
Officials said Omuro admitted that members of his website and prostitutes typically used acronyms for sex acts, which were defined in graphic detail in the website’s “Terms and Acronyms” section.
While prostitutes could post advertisements for free, myRedBook.com offered additional options for a fee.
For example, officials said prostitutes could pay a fee to have their advertisement featured more prominently on the website. Similarly, customers could access myRedBook.com for free.
If a customer purchased a membership, however, the customer obtained early and enhanced access to prostitute reviews, enhanced prostitute review search options, and access to additional VIP forums, among other things, according to officials.